From singing country music in the church talent show as a youngster, to picking up a guitar as the age of 10 and to now recording and performing on stage, Ada native and 22-year-old Clint Austen is on the rise.

Austen’s musical talents will be on display Thursday, Nov. 10, as he opens for country star Hal Ketchum in concert at 7:30 p.m. at East Central University’s Ataloa Theatre in the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center.

The Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner, hosted by the East Central University Human Resources Department, is set for Monday, Nov. 21, from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Pontotoc County Agri-Plex in Ada.

The dinner is free to all community members. The format will be the same as past years. However, meals will not be delivered. Financial donations and canned food donations, including green beans, corn and cranberry sauce, are welcome.

“The Magic of the Piano” will be the program as Dr. Scott Carrell performs a solo piano recital at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Faust Hall Auditorium.

The program, which is free and open to the public, includes piano masterworks by classical composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Liszt, as well as works by popular American composers Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.

“A Broadway Spectacular,” performed by ECU Showtime, is set for this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 4-5, at 7:30 p.m. in East Central University’s Dorothy I. Summers Theatre in the Science Hall Building.

Tickets are only $5 and admission is free for all ECU students, faculty and staff with ECU ID.

ECU Showtime will be performing “Alexander Hamilton” from the newly-popular hit musical Hamilton; “The Nicest Kids in Town” from Hairspray; “That Jazz” from Chicago and “Gaston” from Beauty and the Beast.

Charmin Holland, one of 12 finalists for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year and an East Central University alumna, will deliver ECU’s annual Marvin Stokes Lecture at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 7, in the Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Holland, who earned her bachelor of science in education degree from ECU in 1991, is currently a kindergarten teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Duncan. Previously, she taught in the public school systems at Elgin, Rush Springs and Walters.

East Central University alumnus and Duke University Assistant Professor Dr. Courtney Karner spoke to two ECU biology classes and a group from the McNair Scholars Program Monday in the Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center.

Karner is a research faculty member in the Department of Orthopaedics Research at Duke in Durham, N.C. and spoke to the ECU students about glutamine metabolism and bone formation and how they are trying to reduce the effects of osteoporosis.

East Central University's mission is to foster a learning environment in which students, faculty, staff, and community
interact to educate students for life in a rapidly changing and culturally diverse society. Within its service area,
East Central University provides leadership for economic development and cultural enhancement.